pirateoversixty wrote:dont' know if this has been discussed before, but does anyone have any experience with this line of chemicals and derivitives? photogs formulary makes them sound like the proverbial silver bullet.
Jim

Di-Xactol is a catechol (pyrocatechin) developer designed by the late Barry Thornton and is still made by Peter Hogan, although he also has his own Prescysol & Prescysol EF developers which are similar.

I'm not a connoisseur of pyro or catechol developers, so I can't be of much help. You can find out more information from his website and contact him directly.

apparently the barry thornton stuff isn't all that popular in the States. i have tried his version of d-23 two-part developer, but it doesn't seem to work any better than anything else. been getting satisfactory results with parodinal, beutlar's neofin, and good old d-76, also home made.
thanx for replies.
jim

pirateoversixty wrote:apparently the barry thornton stuff isn't all that popular in the States. i have tried his version of d-23 two-part developer, but it doesn't seem to work any better than anything else. been getting satisfactory results with parodinal, beutlar's neofin, and good old d-76, also home made.
thanx for replies.
jim

The real magic bullet comes from getting to know your film and developer properly. Playing around with too many different films and developers usually ends up giving disappointing results.
There are some interesting discussions on some photo-forums about non-staining developers versus staining developers if you look in the right place. Just beware of certain threads which lead to nasty spats.

pirateoversixty wrote:apparently the barry thornton stuff isn't all that popular in the States. i have tried his version of d-23 two-part developer, but it doesn't seem to work any better than anything else. been getting satisfactory results with parodinal, beutlar's neofin, and good old d-76, also home made.
thanx for replies.
jim

Some of the modern liquid concentrates from various manufacturers are good as well. Ilford's own DDX was designed as developer to give similar results to ID-11 and is of the buffered-borax type.
It probably fits mid way between ID-11 and Microphen which itself is a PQ variant of the D-76 type.
You might find this link of interest. http://www.philpankov.com/-/philpankov/ ... sp?ID=1420

I did test many B&W films about 5 years ago, and found that Fuji Neopan Acros is somewhat faster (EI 64 vs EI 32 for Pan-F) but it is easier to develop (Pan-F develops very rapidly). As far as grain or sharpness, to me it seems a tossup. Color response to green is noticeably better with Fuji B&W films.